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Amaranthus cruentus
Also called Mexican Grain Amaranth, Purple Amaranth, Love-lies-bleeding, Pigweed, Amaranth, Blood Amaranth, Caterpillar Amaranth
Red amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) is a tall annual herb with dark pink, feathery flower plumes, grown for its grain, leaves and ornamental value. It is grown from seed in warm weather and does best in full sun with regular water.
Amaranthus cruentus is a flowering plant species that is native from Central Mexico to Nicaragua. It yields a nutritious staple amaranth grain, being one of three Amaranthus species cultivated as a grain source, the other two being Amaranthus hypochondriacus and Amaranthus caudatus. It has several common names, including blood amaranth, red amaranth, purple amaranth, prince's feather, and Mexican grain amaranth.
A. cruentus is cultivated as an ornamental plant, valued for its feather-like flowering plumes. It is usually grown from seed as a half-hardy annual, that is sown under glass in early spring and planted out in summer. Numerous cultivars have been developed, of which the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
'Autumn Palette Group' (earth colours – rust, cream, brown)
This species was in use as a food source in North America and Central America as early as 4000 BC. The seeds are eaten as a cereal grain. They are black in the wild plant, and white in the domesticated form. They are ground into flour, popped like popcorn, cooked into a porridge, or made into a confectionery called alegría. The leaves can be cooked like spinach, and the seeds can be germinated into nutritious sprouts. While A. cruentus is no longer a staple food in North and Central America, it is still grown and sold as a health food.
Greenstripe · Prostrate pigweed · Mat amaranth · Purple amaranth · Brown's amaranth · Love-lies-bleeding · Spleen amaranth · Mediterranean amaranth · Slim amaranth · Prince-of-Wales feather · African amaranth · Carelessweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Amaranthus cruentus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
